The Committee received and noted a report that followed up from the scrutiny challenge session on the Council’s community cohesion services, which went to Overview and Scrutiny Committee (OSC) on 12 April, 2017 with 6 recommendations.

It was noted that the report reviewed the progress against the recommendations. The report also highlights that the Council is leading on best practice in this area, as an example its role and involvement with London Councils to help develop the future approaches is noted and recognised. The report  also recognises the range and scale of projects being undertaken by the Council, addressing cohesion in Tower hamlets. The report makes recommendations which aim to further enhance cohesion outcomes for the borough.

It was that the findings from the challenge session discussion, which included qualitative evidence from professionals both internally and external to the Council and councillors’ practical experience in the field, have been supplemented by additional secondary sources. These include review of population statistics and trends, ward data, as well as consideration of the impact of legislation and findings             from national reviews. The recommendations arising from this range of evidence sources are outlined below.

It was noted that the review had specifically looked at:

1. The definition of community cohesion;
2. National reviews related to cohesion;
3. The key findings from the Casey Review and to establish to what extent those findings were prevalent in Tower Hamlets by considering and comparing factual and statistical evidence;
4. The Council’s Cohesion Programme which included a prima facie review of existing projects and funding;
5. The Council’s approach to grants and the associated impact on improving cohesion outcomes;
6. Language as driver of cohesion, including a consideration of the effectiveness of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision; 
7. The impact of council policies on cohesion such as the school admissions, housing and planning policies;
8. A consideration of the social and economic data and trends and the consequential impact on the gentrification of the borough; and
9. The context of the Equalities Act 2010 and the Public Sector Equalities Duty on the Council to foster good relations between people and the Council’s leadership role on cohesion.